Tuesday, October 30, 2012

New homes are popping up in the valley around our place in San Vicente. A local land owner has divided up the valley into 40' x 80' lots that many of the farm workers are scooping up to build their first homes. Here you can see typical building materials that include old garage doors, wooden pallets, scrap lumber, cardboard boxes, sheet metal and tarp roofs. It's a start for these struggling families. Three of the ladies that are currently participating in building their own sewing businesses with me have begun putting up houses in this valley.

I've been working with the ladies to expand their line of purses and bags. One recent week in San Vicente was spent designing electronic bags. These padded bags are to protect computers and e-readers, have adjustable straps and come in a variety of sizes. Yolanda has been whipping up colors to appeal to both men and women.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

SO... while Lori was busy with her sewing classes, I (Chris) got busy and installed 2x4's on the inside of all the windows in our house... plus a number of other 'chica-nada' repairs to reduce the ability of robbers to break in again.
Them 2x4's are in with 4 inch screws, deep into the hard-wood frame.
C

We've got two wildfires about 5-6 miles away. It's Oct 17, temp went up to 91 (official) with relative humidity of 20%. Tropical Depression 'Paul' basically fell apart over us, and created a few hours of 35-knot winds...
It's dark now, the fire to the west has diminshed, but the one to the east has quite the healthy orange glow... we'll have to stay alert, if we need to e-vac

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Nice banner, eh? Lori puts this out so the people in the neighborhood know they are invited...
She's doing a full week of sewing classes (public) and a number of special sessions (private) helping people work on their projects, some for their home, some for sale to help their financial income.
Pray for Lori as she works hard this week.
Chris

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Hey
We arrived in San Vicente, Lori ready to hit the ground running to do a solid week of sewing classes... only to find our little 'casita' had been broken into and robbed.
They broke a window to get in, rifled thru things, left opened food everywhere, and took tools, bags and buckets. They also stole the screens on a couple big windows.
SO... extra cleaning, scoured the bathroom (they did nasty things there)... and the emotional angst of having your stuff violated...
Aargggh!

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Here's Lori, doin' what she loves... helping mom (Camalia) in her new micro-enterprise/cottage industry, and teaching Camalia's two kids the basics of sewing... all in our San Vicente 'Chaparell House' with the thermometer reading 102 degrees...

Monday, October 1, 2012

Hey
We're down in San V... trying to get things done AND survive the heat.
It was over 100 yesterday. It's 4pm now and it's 101.
Yeah, it's October. In Baja Mexico, October is the hottest month.
Relative humidity was 26%... balmy!
Most people here do very little from about 12 noon until 6pm... too hot to do anything... that's where the Mexican 'siesta' came from: might as well take a nap!
The good news is... so far... no fires. Fire danger is high, with all the chapparell growth dried out, all it needs is some spark (usually lightening) or some broken bottle-bottom acting as a lens for the direct sun on a fuel source... thousands of acres go up each year like that...
Meanwhile, drink plenty of fluids and stay in the shade!
Rainy season kicks in at the end of November... then it drops into the 20's at night...
Chris